Personality Theory

You have a unique set of traits that make you who you are. The study of personality identifies and organizes your characteristics and behaviors in such a way as to help you better understand yourself. This article serves as in introduction to preferences, temperament, personality type, multiple intelligences, learning styles and brain hemispheres.

Your Preferences

There are four pairs of opposite Preferences, Extraversion/Introversion (E/I), Sensing/Intuition (S/N), Thinking/Feeling (T/F), Judging/Perceiving (J/P). Everybody has a greater tendency toward one preference than the other in each pair. For example, in the Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F) pair, you may have a stronger tendency toward Feeling (F) and that would classify you as a “Feeler”. Notice that each preference has a single letter (such as “F”) that identifies it. Your combination of these letters relates to your temperament and personality type.

Your Temperament — A Broad Picture

People can be classified as having one of Four Temperaments. The idea that there are four temperaments has been around for centuries and is useful for painting a broad picture of a person. We identify temperament by a person’s preference letters. For example, if you prefer Sensing (S) and Perceiving (P), your temperament would be SP.

Your Personality Type — A Detailed Portrait

Personality Type is more specific than temperament. In fact, there are four personality types within each temperament, for a total of 16 Personality Types. As with temperament, personality type is also identified by the letters of your dominant preferences. A detailed picture can be painted for each personality type.

Your Mind — Intelligences, Learning Styles, Brain Hemispheres

Add the mind to all of this. A person has a natural set of Multiple Intelligences (logical, linguistic, musical, etc.) in which they excel as well as preferred Learning Styles (auditory, visual, etc.). Further, how you utilize your Brain Hemispheres plays a role in shaping your personality.

Take the Test to get your free personality report. It includes your results for each aspect of your personality introduced in this article.